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Benefits. Two tried for them a while ago. One pensioner, one working zero hours contract (who had to sell up anyway). The pensioner was 'advised' that if he came off the water he could receive help. The zero hours contract was told that if his hours became regular (over 20 something hours a week) then he'd get help too. On average, he worked 15 a week. No, claiming benefits seems like a dead loss.

So much has been written about the cost of moorings and the idyllic lifestyle of living on a boat. Only what happens when it all goes wrong? It's mighty sad when a close community of liveaboards breaks up and scatters, but that's what is happening in Tewkesbury, River Avon. Some have been at that Marina for over 20 years but are now having to look for new moorings. Why? An introduction of a 'residential rate' was announced on 6th March to take effect from 1st April from the usual £214 a metre for narrow boats and £266 for wide-beams to £328 a metre for all residential berth holders and that has caused 'problems' for both narrow-boats and wide-beams owners alike. After some 'mild mannered discussion', on the 21st March the tariff was dropped to £276 for narrow-boats and £296 for wide-beams. That's still one heck of a rise percentage wise. Thus a 60 foot (18.3 m) narrow-boat is looking at £5050 at the revised rate and the same length wide-beam £5416. Add the ANT license of £522 plus their residential license fee of £20. And the Council Tax at Band A £1053.45 For a 60 footer that totals narrow boats £6645 and the same length wide-beam £7011 (Not including the compulsory boat insurance). It's suddenly got really expensive and damage has been done, big time. Most can't afford this price hike (especially the OAPS and those on fixed incomes) and they are shipping out. A sad state of affairs is the breaking up of long term communities.

Thanks for the advice Keith. Now all I need is a good marine engineer who lives near Tewkesbury / river Avon. Not asking for a lot am I??

Hi Keith. Is that something I could change with minimal tooling?

Hi. I've got this gearbox TMC60P on the back of a Mitsibushi 415 and although it works a treat in reverse, quiet, smooth, sounds 'lovely'. In forward it sounds like a grindy bag of nails. When running engine in neutral there is no noise from the gear box. Oil level checked this morning and is at the full mark. Hours run, 146 hours. Any thoughts?

Hi. I've got an interesting problem with my service batteries. Three 110ah "maintenance free" deep cycle leisure batteries. Back in August 2014 I changed all three of the batteries after one decided to boil dry. They are fed from a 12-2500 Combi charger. Ordinarily they sit quietly with the mastervolt do-dah reporting a voltage of 13.5 volts on float. Within the last couple of days that voltage has dropped to 13.25. Looking at the batteries the little green charge "balls" are in place (after giving the batteries a tap) and everything is clean and tight with the connections. Turning the combi off, then on, the battery voltage rose to 14.4 on bulk for about 10 mins and now after an hour, it's still in absorbtion mode reading 14.31 to 14.4 and fluctuating. We've been out and about on a weekly basis and when travelling the charge current on the switch panel drops to almost zero after about 10 minutes of engine time. Reading the Combi manual, it talks about the unit performing a 12 day auto switch to absorbtion to keep the batteries nice although I've never see it do that. Is this a case of batteries needing to be deep exercised (cycled) as they just aren't working enough OR is something else going on? Over to you guys (and girls)

I thank you both. Voc? Come to think about it I've not seen that included in many adverts but understand what it means now. I'm thinking of using 24 volt panels in parallel 'cause I need more voltage then 12 volts when using an MPPT charger and that produces more current (Or so it is written). Then I made a mistake and looked up what it was all about on the http://pveducation.org site. Anyone else scratching their heads at that one like I did? Thus I feel a series of phone calls coming on to a few suppliers to find out the VOC. The Keep it stupidly simple (KISS) non mathematical approach .

Thank you all for your replies. I'm actually glad I can because too much electronics (MasterVolt) scares me. Yes nicknorman I've got the remote battery meter thingy to monitor the batteries although showing what is going through the shunt seems to be a bit weird as I've never seen it read ZERO! Jacking into the non battery side of the shunt will have to be done by the main alternator fuses I guess so I'm looking for putting a fuse holder onto the main distribution board. Should be easy enough. 30 amp controller was suggested, so I'm guessing that I need something round a 25 amp fuse. I can definitely see the advantage of running the engine as the bulk charge then let the solar do it's thing as the absorption / float supply. Them curvy panels look good and gluing them down to the roof will save a lot of work with boards / bracketry. Besides it's better security in my mind. Expensive suckers though aren't they? I sketched a friends DIY angle iron job which enabled her to angle the flat panels she has fitted yet although "elegant" as it was, the roof is curved so I'm thinking why not use the flexible ones. How essential is it to point the boards though? After all the roof is curved a bit. One thing though. Sun shines, roof gets hot and it creaks well. Toasty as the wife calls it. I'm thinking the roof will flex, stretch, shrink, or whatever, that won't damage those stick on types will it? Looking at the adverts, I've actually got room for 6 x 100 watt panels. It seemed a lot yet I was reading that in winter you can lose up to 75% charge from some makes of panels. On the other side, in summer, if I had an array like that, would I need to black out say half the panels to prevent over driving the MPPT box? Then, If I did that, would I be endangering the blacked out panels from reverse charging (I suppose you'd call it that). So many questions, so little time but as said, thanks for all your answers.

Hi people. I've got a boat with a Mastervolt Combi unit fitted. (12/2500-10). OK, very nice (in a technologically frightening way) with two other boxes in the digtal line i.e. a mastershunt 500 and a thingy called a digital DC 10x 10A. All I can say about them is the green LED's flash occasionally and it all looks very "butch". It scares the heck out of me does all that technology. Load wise, the only thing running 24/7 is my fridge which pulls 6.3 amps occasionally when the fan is turning. The rest of the boat is now all low power LED. What I want to do is to equip for constant cruising and thus am thinking I've got a nice big roof, and there is enough space for 4 x 100w 12v solar panels running through a MPPT controller. Not a problem except can you combine (parallel) the two? That's the free solar power and the all singing grey box with the Master Volt label? So far emails to MasterVolt are going unanswered thus this question. Which either means they don't want me to or I've been spammed into the WPB. And across to you.

After an exciting day spraying the bulkheads and engine bay with bicarb (not one fizz either) dousing everything with clean water and drying up with elephants bog roll, I can report happily that there is no snow left in Somerset or ,to be accurate, me boat!

Whilst some folk happily swing their boats about without a BT (me looking at them with envy), It's been a useful tool for me as a newbie. As for using it often? At first yes I did but lately only when docking as a gentle nudge to stop a bounce off the jetty. So guilty as charged, I've got one and use it. In my defense, less each time i go out to play I've almost got "reversing" and maneuvering but appreciate that little assist when things get a bit tight. After all if I cock up big time I could damage another boat. Something I'm not keen to do.

OK, I've gone from depressed to happy and back to worried. So tomorrow I get to spray the engine bay with Bicarbonate of soda. Just so's I get it right, what strength mixture? As for purging the air, short of just leaving the covers off and praying for wind, that's about all I can do. How does Bicarb react with electronics then? I'm going to cover what I can with towels but life ain't perfect so I've got to assume some of the spray will sneak past the towels. Does aluminum react with bicarb? After all if I spray with an alkaline, won't there be a danger of that reacting with the metal? So many questions. Seeing as though there is a danger of long term damage to all them little grey boxes, is this time to talk to the insurance?

Yippee! Kleenex back in in the cupboard and red eyes washed. I was sort of thinking (no, hoping like hell) that might be the case. After all I can do most things but a full engine bay strip and polish? No, that would have been a lift and shipyard job. Megger bucks. I thank you.

Ok, bicarbonate. I can work that one out it being an alkaline. Except on further inspection, the whole of the engine bay (even behind the biggest electronics panel in the world) has a thin layer of white "dust" which I presume is the "corrosion" for want of a better word. To do all that is one major strip down if not a complete gut job of the engine bay (sobbing quietly into the kleenex). Way beyond me that one would be. Is that really the only option?

My first question yippee! You know what it's like when you know something is wrong but can't quite put your finger on it? I searched the boat and eventually found the middle service battery (of three) gently bubbling away with the other two getting toasty from the heat. Then, after the "where the hell is the toolkit" question, I disconnected the beast and got it off the boat before "boom". Heavy things are 110AH batteries aren't they? It must have been close as it remained hot all night cooking in it's own juices and was still going right down to the dump. So, three new service batteries later, calm is restored. It wasn't the charger incidently, just a failed cell. The New Problem. The battery must have been venting that lovely sulphuric acid gas as a couple of the bulkheads now have a white dust on them. Current advice is to wash it off with soapy water and dry everything off. Good advise or not guys and girls?